It has become common for portable devices, such as mobile terminals, to include digital cameras. Mobile terminals equipped with cameras allow users to capture images and video and then transmit the captured video and images to remote locations. Because of the size limitations placed on cameras and sensors that are part of mobile terminals, it is common for captured images to have poor quality. In particular, contrast and intensity levels are often set at levels that result in poor image quality.
Scenes that contain both dark and bright sections often result in poor contrast and intensity levels, particularly when automatic settings are used. The camera exposure time is set for a short time period to minimize the number of saturated pixels. The short exposure time causes some parts of the image to have low intensity and contrast. Short exposure times may also be set manually to capture moving objects without blurring. Images captured with manually set short exposure times may have similar intensity and contrast limitations.
There is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for processing digital images to correct intensity and/or contrast levels.